CUS508/592A Globalization and Contemporary Social Change
First Semester, 2005-06 (Elective: MCS-1, MCS-2 and PDLS-1)
Quota:
MCS [30] + PDLS [10]
Instructor:
Dr. Mirana SZETO, Dr. HUI Po-keung and Dr. CHEN Yun-chung
Time:
Monday, 6:45-9:45 pm
Venue:
World Trade Centre, Causeway Bay
Course Description
This course will introduce a cultural studies approach to social change of the contemporary
world. Particular attention will be paid to how various processes of social
polarization—urban/rural, rich/poor, developed/underdeveloped—are conditioned by
forces that have global reach. Tracing those forces, in particular those of nation-states and
transnational corporations, the course will examine the resistance and complicity of people
drawn into such processes of polarization. The course will also consider how negotiated
boundaries between the “local” and the “global” are culturally established and/or unsettled.
Topics to be discussed may include war, development, poverty, cultural identities, science
and technology, alternative practices, transnational cultural politics and the role of global
media.
Aims and Objectives

To provide students with a basic understanding of the contemporary global context;

To examine the validity and implications of various discourses of globalization;

To facilitate students’ understanding of how political and cultural practices are
structured, negotiated and contested in the changing global context;

To foster reflection on how alternative practices and interconnections are possible
within that context.
Indicative Contents

Discourses on globalization: Marxist schools, neo-liberal perspectives, feminist
perspectives, cultural studies;

Globalization: myth, reality and representations;

Selected issues of social change.
Assessment
100% continuous assessment.